Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 1214: Obvious

Capítulo 1214: Obvious

Griar stood over one of the many bunkers that were supposed to be hidden away beneath the earth, difficult for enemies to discover and subsequently attack–Unfortunately, much like the one in the wasteland, this one had been pried open, and everything was silent.

During Griar’s last passage around here, this bunker had been just fine, so whatever had happened should have happened at most a week ago… But the stench of blood or death was completely absent.

There were no remains anywhere.

‘Is it another one of those ghouls who devour their prey whole?’

The living did not know, but he could tell that there was something dangerous within the bunker. The one within was not hiding themselves. If anything, they were actively making their presence known, almost as if inviting Griar in…

‘…I am not going in there. This smells of a trap from a kilometer away’ Griar may be seeking combat, but he wasn’t missing part of his brain.

He wasn’t like an insect that would dive toward the scent of sugar while ignoring the fact that hundreds of other insects lay dead at the end of it all.

Thus, he was going to leave and go pick a fight that looked less like an ambush–Alas, it seemed like his stealth capabilities had not proven enough. The moment he began to leave, he felt the ground beneath his feet tremble, as what sounded like explosions rushed straight at him from below.

With a spell of haste, Griar moved out of the way, bearing witness to a blast of stone and dirt as a figure soon stepped out of the resulting cloud of dust.

“I thought you were braver than this. I suppose you only like to fight when you have the element of surprise? Pathetic. Only through real, head-on fights can one truly progress! That’s what you’re after, right? Progress…”

“…You want to be stronger, don’t you? Do you have people you want to protect? Your mother? Your sisters? A missus, perhaps? Some vile, living progeny? The avarice of livings disgusts me”

From the dust cloud, a vampire of Nosferatu’s brood stepped out, wearing clothes that he had clearly stolen from a soldier of this realm, appearing like he was gearing for a tactical assault.

Like the vast majority of vampires of his kind, he was completely bald, had bushy eyebrows, a peculiarly shaped head that was not too odd to be inhuman, but still weird enough to be noticeable… Large hands, grey skin, and a generally bulky physique with wide shoulders.

Griar got into a stance. A Nosferatu vampire was a rather big leap. Especially since, from what he had seen, the leaders of this expedition seemed to be a group of them. So it was likely that they were considered skilled amongst their kind as well.

“Not going to respond, Little Man? Fine, I can say far more heinous things than this… There were still people alive down there before you decided to turn tail, you know? I had kept myself a few of the prettier women to spend the time while waiting to see if you ate the bai-”

Griar’s heel came smashing into the vampire’s jaw–But the direct hit only caused the undead to take a couple of steps back, grinning as he casually popped his jaw back into place. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“Good! Not bad at all! Can you hit even harder if I start going into details of what I did to them?!”

The corpse moved. The ground beneath his feet seemed to be blasted away as he himself simply vanished from Griar’s line of sight.

The living barely had time to dodge out of the way. He felt the chaotic winds as the vampire’s fist went right past his head, crashing into the ground, sending spiderweb-like cracks running through the surroundings.

Griar’s opponent had just used something to empower himself, and it wasn’t just a simple mana boost. It felt like a mix of many different things, like the vampire had applied many layers of reinforcement onto many different things at once…

Til’Tilim grinned savagely, cracking his fingers. It had been a long while since he had gotten into a fight with an enemy that could actually dodge his blows. Although it was a lengthy affair and not a necessarily simple one, conquering this realm was not very stimulating in the way of combat.

The local livings were simply too weak and fragile to pose any threat, even their so-called ‘advanced’ weaponry is a joke. The only good things about them–In the vampire’s eyes–Were their women. They offered nothing of value beyond that and some knowledge.

However, Til’Tilim was not one big on knowledge. He might educate himself every now and then, read a few books written by trustworthy experts–But he was far more interested in bloody fights, violence, and taking advantage of his superior strength to do as he saw fit with livings.

One did not end up as a member of the Spearhead caste without reason…

His nails turned into claws as he lunged at Griar. The living focused intently, channelling his stronger augmentation spells throughout his body.

He dodged the first few claw swipes, still finding himself close to being struck despite his enhanced senses and speed. Not to mention, predicting Til’Tilim’s attack was difficult. He did not truly aim for any body part in particular. He was in possession of claws that could tear right through the living’s flesh, and he knew it.

Thus, the vampire attacked in an unpredictable, erratic manner that forced Griar on the defensive.

The living was thinking… In this realm, the sun was too weak to be an issue for vampires, meaning that Griar could not make use of this convenient weakness at all here–And as far as he was aware, Nosferatu vampires did not really have any other weakness apart from sunlight, especially not vampires from the current Undead Empire.

He would have to fall back on the old reliables.

Mid-swing, Til-Tilim found his right arm stopped, held in place as Griar clenched his fist, landing a direct hit to the undead’s chest, throwing the vampire back several dozen meters, until the corpse stopped himself by digging his fingers into the soil.

‘That bastard has tough skin…’

The undead’s upper garments had been torn to shreds, as not only had Griar struck him with a punch, but he had cast several spells on impact, manifesting a flurry of wind blades. Yet, the vampire was seemingly unharmed, only his clothes suffering any damage.

Griar was really going to have to burn through excessive amounts of mana if he was hoping to deal actual harm with his blows.

‘In this case… Let’s see how strong this is’

Griar swung his arm. Nowadays, he would usually never perform any gestures while casting a spell, but past a certain level of power, it was best to free some of his mind and cast the spells in a simpler manner.

Though what he just manifested did not really count as a spell. It was a Vertex. Wind mana pushed to the maximum output Griar could manage, and stacked to the utmost limit of mana he could stash into it.

The attack merely took the shape of a blade because of the way he cast it. Otherwise, it was just a lump of wind mana that had not even taken on the form of wind.

Til’Tilim eyed the oncoming Vertex-level attack coming his way with a grin. The veins on his right arm and hand seemed to bulge. Rather than trying to dodge as any sensible person would, the vampire pushed directly at the oncoming projectile.

Griar did not stay idle, but he couldn’t help but have his face turned as he saw what was happening.

The spell was stopped by the strike, only pushing the undead a few meters back before coming to a grinding halt and being subsequently shattered into harmless wisps of mana.

Whatever method it was that the vampire was using to enhance his strength was one that also allowed him to interest and shatter energy-based constructs as well.

Regardless of what happened to the Vertex-level attack, Griar was able to reposition himself whilst the vampire was busy flexing his incredible strength, turning into a gust of wind to get behind his opponent’s back, slamming both of his palms against the corpse’s cold, grey back.

He pushed mana directly into his opponent’s body, detonating spells using said mana in an attempt to blow the corpse apart.

The vampire seemingly dislocated one of his arms, using it to punch behind his back, striking Griar directly in the face–Through a swiftly placed barrier, though.

“Nice try, but you’re going to have to try harder than this. It’s not with this minuscule amount of mana that you are going to turn me into a bomb”

Til’Tilim surged again, this time even faster, as he landed a direct kick against the living’s guard, throwing Griar to the ground before attempting to stomp down on the human’s head.

Griar turned into a gust of wind at the last second, repositioning himself, striking the vampire across the head with a punch imbued with Vertex-level mana.

The cadaver’s jaw was dislocated again, and a few of his teeth were broken, but all signs of damage were gone in the blink of an eye.

“That… Was better”